Method and Apparatus For Energy Saving and Efficient Air Conditioning and Heat Exchanging

ABSTRACT

Methods and apparatuses, and computer programs, are disclosed. The apparatus may include heat exchanger with coils filled with heat media, humidifier to increase humidity of air. When humid air flows through the heat exchanger coils heat change occurs. The humidifier provides the heat exchanger with moisten so to increase the efficiency of the exchanger, and/or to prevent the air getting too dry to loss efficiency. In addition, the water vapors emitted from humidifier could absorb air pollutants, such as PM2.5 particles from the air to provide clean air-conditioner environments. The apparatus could include humidity sensors and/or hygrometers. These sensors and/or hygrometers may be placed in one or more locations to measure and/or monitor humidity of these locations. The controller could be used to control any part of the apparatus, and the apparatus could be part of home automation system, and/or industry/commercial automation system. The apparatus could further operate as a heater unit.

The subject matter described herein relates to air conditioning, humidify and heat exchange.

BACKGROUND

All the current air conditioners operate with the similar principle to produce cold air. A compressor to compress refrigerant, such as freon, into liquid. When the compressed refrigerant becomes liquid and the liquid refrigerant passes through heat exchanger with many evaporator coils. When hot air flows over the cold, low-pressure evaporator coils, the refrigerant inside absorbs heat as it changes from a liquid state to a gaseous state. The evaporator coils reach the temperature around or below the dew point. When the hot air touches the coils, condensation occurs when certain portion of the water component in the air condenses into water drops. As an air conditioner continues to operate to cool down the air, air will loss more and more water component and becomes less humid. Heat exchanger efficiency depends on heat transfer coefficients. The heat transfer coefficients are correlated to the humidity of the air, the higher the humidity of the air, the higher of the heat transfer coefficients. As the air becomes less humid as the air conditioner continues to operate, it loses its efficiency and consumers more power and energy.

SUMMARY

In one aspect, there is an apparatus. The apparatus may comprise a heat exchanger with coils filled with heat media, which could be some type of refrigerants or freon, a humidifier to increase humidity of air. In the apparatus when the moisten humid air flows through the heat exchanger coils heat change occurs. The humidifier may be one of ultrasonic humidifier, evaporative humidifier, impeller humidifier, an air damper, dripper with clothes, and a mist gun etc . . . . One or more humidifiers may be placed in one or more locations inside or outside of an air conditioning unit and may be connected to the unit via wire or wirelessly. The moisten air enables the heat exchanger be more energy efficiency and uses less energy to produce the same amount cold air.

In some aspects of the embodiments, during the condensation, condensed water drops onto a dripping pan. The dripping pan may connect to humidifier's reservoir to recycle condensed water, or the dripping pan itself could serve as a reservoir. It may reduce or eliminate needs to drain out all condensed water, thus, it may reduce installation materials and simplify the air conditioning unit installation.

In another aspect, the apparatus may include humidity sensors and/or hygrometers. These sensors and/or hygrometers may be placed in one or more locations to measure and/or monitor humidity of these locations.

In another aspect, as water vapors are injected into the air, they could absorb dirt, dusts and air pollutants such as PM2.5 particles to enable the areas becoming less polluted.

In another aspect, the apparatus may include one or more controllers. The sensors may be wired or wirelessly connected to the controllers. The controller may control the operations of the humidifier or any part of the apparatus. The apparatus and/or the controller may be a part of a home automation system, and/or a part of an industry/commercial automation system.

In yet another aspect, the apparatus may have memories and computer processor and computer programs. The apparatus may perform machine learning and/or artificial intelligent functions, and self-learned and perform designed or self-optimized features.

In yet another aspect, the apparatus may be re-configured into a heater to provide efficiency heating functions provided by different embodiments and/or combinations of thereof.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

In the drawings,

FIG. 1 depicts an air conditioner unit, in according with some of example embodiment;

FIG. 2 depicts an example of a humidifier using ultrasonic humidifier to evaporate water, in according with some of example embodiment;

FIG. 3a depicts another example of a humidifier using dripping clothes to dampen air, in according with some example of embodiment;

FIG. 3b depicts, yet, another example of humidifier using mist gun to inject water vapors into air, in according with some of example of embodiment;

FIG. 4 depicts water from condensation is recycled by a humidifier, in according with some of example embodiment;

FIG. 5 depicts, yet, another example of humidifier placing to cool the compressor heat dispenser, in according with some of example of embodiment;

Like labels are used to refer to same or similar items in the drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 depicts an example of an air conditioner unit 100 including air inlet with a possible air filter 110, hear exchanger with many and long evaporator coils 120, a dripping pan 130 with a pipe for draining the water, a compressor 140, a pipe connecting between the heater exchanger and the compressor, cold air chamber and a fan 150 sending cold air to the air-conditioned areas. In an example of embodiment, it also shows a humidifier 160.

Hot air is flowing through the inlet 110 into the air conditioner unit 100 and further passing through heat exchanger 120. The heat exchanger is connected to the compressor 140 with pipe for heat media, such as freon or some type of refrigerants. The compressor compresses refrigerant into liquid. The liquid refrigerant flows to the heat exchanger with many evaporator coils. The pressure inside the evaporator coils is lower. As hot air flows through and in touch with the evaporator coils, the refrigerant absorbs heat from the air as it changes from a liquid state to a gaseous state. The temperature of evaporator coils reaches to or below the dew point when refrigerant changes its state from liquid to gaseous state.

Humid air is a mixture of dry air (nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide and noble gases) and water vapors. Density of the humid air is the sum of the densities of dry air and water vapors ρ=ρi+ρh, where pi is dry density and ρh the density of water vapors; and the humidity of air is ratio of water vapors and dry air: x=ρh/ρi. As the humid air flows through the heat exchanger, the flow of the dry air remains constant but the humidity of air may change. The evaporator coils reach dew point in temperature or below. When humid air touches the coils, condensation occurs, that is, the air is longer able to hold all water vapors in it. Part of water vapors in the air become condensed water dropping out from the air.

By experience and/or by experiment, it could be shown that higher the ratio of water vapors in the air, the more heat is changed when the humid hot air flows through the heat exchanger and in touch of the evaporator coils. When the humid hot air enters the heat exchanger, its humidity is X(z). There are many points in the heat exchanger that condensation can occur. Somewhere in the middle of the exchanger, the humidity becomes X(h). When it leaves the heat exchanger the humidity becomes X(a). The total humidity is thus reduced by X(z)−Z(a). The air gets drier and colder after it passes through the heat exchanger due to this process. As air gets drier, it contains less water vapors. It thus reduces the efficiency of the heat exchanger. That is, with the same amount of the energy, the temperature of the hot air drops to lower temperature by less degrees. By increasing the moisture level or the humidity, or the ratio of water vapor content in the air, one could improve the efficiency of the exchanger, or at least to prevent the decrease of heat exchanger efficiency due to the air becomes too dry.

FIG. 2 depicts an example of embodiments. A humidifier 160 includes a water tank 161 (or the water reservoir). The reservoir 161 holds water, where water could be pre-filled, or could come from the dripping pan 130 where water is from the humid air condensation by the heat exchanger and drops down to the pan, or the water tank could be connected to the outside for refill, and/or combination of thereof. If the water tank is connected to the dripping pan, the condensed water could be recycled.

The humidifier 160 could be an ultrasonic humidifier with a mental plate 162 that can vibrate at an ultrasonic frequency. When the mental plate vibrates at such high frequency, it breaks apart the water particles inside the reservoir. Once the particles are split they become a cool water vapors which are then emitted as a fine, invisible mist into the air. Water vapors 163 are mixed into air to increase the humidity (or relative humidity) x=ρh/ρi of the air. A hygrometer or a humidity sensor 164 could be used to measure and monitor the humidity of the moisten air.

FIG. 1 shows an example of embodiment where the humidifier 160 is placed between air inlet/air filter 110 and the heat exchanger. When operating, the humidifier emits a fine invisible mist into the air. Humidity of the air increases. The humid air is then directly drawn into the heat exchanger in contact with the heat exchanger evaporator coils. Part of water vapors in the air are condensed on the surface of the coils, and condensed water drips down to the dripping pan 130. Heat in the hot humid air is absorbed as the refrigerant changes its state from liquid to gaseous inside the coils. By increase humidity of the incoming hot air in this example of embodiment, it effectively increases the heat transfer coefficients, thus, it effectively increases the efficiency of the heat exchanger, or at least it prevents air gets too dry to loss heat exchange efficiency. As the efficiency of the heat exchanger increases, it takes less time and less energy to cool down the air to reach a desired temperature.

The condensed water in the dripping pan could be recycled to fill the water tank of the humidifier. In an embodiment, depending on how much of the condensed water is recycled, it may reduce or eliminate the need of water draining pipe for draining the condensed water. With this embodiment, it could result in further saving in the air conditioner installation since it may not need to connect a draining pipe to drain water to outside.

FIG. 2, the humidity sensor, or a hygrometer, is placed nearby the humidifier. The sensor could measure and monitor the humidity nearby the humidifier. The measurement could be used by a controller (not shown in the drawing) to control to a desired level of humidity, by switching on and off the humidifier or controlling the power level of the humidifier or combination of thereof.

Humidity measurement could be done in many ways and/or by many types of hygrometers. Some of examples are dry and wet bulb hygrometers, dew point hygrometers, and electronic hygrometers. An example of embodiment, electronic hygrometers, sometimes it could also be called humidity sensors. A humidity sensor could come from all different forms and shapes operated under different principles. Electronic type hygrometers or humidity sensors could be broadly divided into two categories: one employs capacitive sensing principle, while other use resistive effects. Sensors could perform measurement remotely and send back measurements either via wired connection and/or wireless connections depending on the applications.

There could be many options in where to place humidity sensor, or multiple humidity sensors in multiple locations for multiple purposes. Another example of embodiment is to place a sensor in a thermostat (not shown in the drawing) which controls the room temperature by turning on and off the air conditioner unit. The thermostat thus could be set to control humidity as well as temperature to a user desired level. Yet, another example of embodiment, a humidity sensor could be placed in a user designated spot where the sensor could be connected back to a controller via wire connection or wireless connection. The controller could then be set to control the humidity level of such designated spot with the measurement from the sensor. There are many variations and combinations how and where humidity sensors or hygrometers could be placed and/or used for vary purposes, and/or the combinations of thereof.

The sensors and/or thermostat could also be controlled by the controller via wire and/or wireless connections. The controller not only could control sensors and humidifiers, but also it could control the whole air conditioner unit. In additional, the controller could be part of home automation system controlling or be controlled via variety of methods and/or mechanisms. It is also possible that there are many combinations how different pieces of such system fitting together and functions either independently or as a system.

There could be many types of controller. The simplest one could be just a simple on and off switch triggering by certain thresholds. There could also be very complex ones that include memories, processors and computer programs and it could perform machine learning and artificial intelligent functions. Then, there could be many in between. The controller could also be part of home automation systems, or could be part of industry and commercial automation systems, or any combination of thereof.

There could be many other similar types of humidifiers. Another example of embodiment, similarly, a humidifier could be an evaporative humidifier. An evaporative humidifier consists of just three major parts: a fan, a wick and a reservoir. An evaporative humidifier pull air into it using its internal fan. This air will then pass along a water-saturated wick filter which has absorbed water the reservoir. The air will then absorb some of the moisture into it and will then be emitted back out into the room to increase the humidity of the surrounding. Yet, another example of embodiment, the humidifier could be an impeller humidifier (cool mist humidifier) uses a rotating disc to fling water at a diffuser, which breaks the water into fine droplets that float into the air.

FIG. 3a depicts another embodiment of a different type of humidifier 310 including water tank 311, clothes (or wick or similar) 312. Water drips from clothes and water vapors 313 are from the clothes mixed into air to increase the humidity of the air. Dripping speed could be monitored and controlled by humidity sensor or hygrometer-connected controller (not shown in the drawing).

FIG. 3b depicts, yet, another embodiment of a different type of humidifier 320 including a water tank 321, mist gun 322. The mist gun injects water vapors into the air to increase the humidity of the air. In this figure, an example of embodiment, the humidifier is placed after the fan 150. Water vapors from the mist gun are mixed into the air after the fan 150, and are blown into the air-conditioned areas.

Water vapors blown into air-conditioner areas will absorb dirt, dusts, and any other PM2.5 air pollutant particles in the air. As the air from air-conditioned areas is cycled through into air conditioner unit, part of air pollutants could thus be filtered out by the air filter 110. In addition, some the pollutants could be further condensed together with water vapors into condensed water during the condensation process when the dirty air flows through heat exchanger and in touch of the evaporator coils. In this embodiment, air quality in the air-conditioned areas could be greatly improved by filtering out and/or condensed out the air pollutants absorbed into the moisten air.

FIG. 4 depicts an example of embodiment of a dripping pan 130. In an example of embodiments, it could include a water filter 131. The water filter could be used to filter out air pollutants absorbed by the water vapors and were condensed into condensed water during the condensation process when the dirty hot air flows through the evaporator coils. The filtered water is clean. It could be recycled back to the water tanks of a humidifier via a connector 132 connecting the pan. In some examples of embodiments, the dripping pan could be used as the reservoir of a humidifier.

While water vapors are released into dry air, it could absorb heat of its surroundings. This would further reduce energy for cooling air and making it more energy efficient for the air conditioning unit.

As shown in vary embodiments, humidifier could come with all different types, such as ultrasonic vaporizer, mist gun, or just simple dripping clothes, and/or combination of thereby. A humidifier could be placed in different locations inside or outside the air conditioner unit, and/or combination of thereof. In some embodiments, multiple humidifiers could be used in multiple locations. In some embodiments, a hygrometer or multiple hygrometers, and/or humidity sensors, could be placed in vary locations to measure and monitor the humidity of the air. In some embodiment, a controller (not shown drawing) could be used to control the air humidity to desired level. In some embodiment, the controlled humidity could be used to balance the heat exchanger efficiency and comfort level of air-conditioned areas. In some embodiments, multiple controllers could be used for variety of designs for vary purposes.

In some embodiment, controller could be programmed to collect humidity, temperature data and other data. It could analyze data and perform self-learning to reach optimized operation mode or other desired features. It could also be integrated into home automation system to perform home automation functions. It could provide home environmental control. It could also be part of a commercial environmental automation system.

FIG. 5 depicts a humidifier 500 places near the compressor 140. When air gets very dry, the heat produced by compressing refrigerants into a liquid state could not be blown away easily by a fan 141, unless by increasing fan speed and/or its power. This would result in more energy and higher fan noises. The humidifier could be used to increase humidity the surrounding air of the compressor for absorbing heat and lower the temperature, thus, in return increasing the efficiency of the overall compressor.

Although a few variations have been described in detail above, other modifications or additions are possible. In particular, further features and/or variations may be provided in addition to those set forth herein. Moreover, the example embodiments described above may be directed to various combinations and subcombinations of the disclosed features and/or combinations and subcombinations of several further features disclosed above. In addition, the logic flow depicted in the accompanying figures and/or described herein does not require the particular order shown, or sequential order, to achieve desirable results. Other embodiments may be within the scope of the following claims.

As examples of embodiments described above focus on how to cool down the air as air conditioning unit. However, it would easy for a skill-in-art person to understand that the heat produced by the compressor could also be used to heat a room. In such example of embodiment, the air conditioning unit could be effectively turned into a heater. With few adjustments and variation of combination, the same energy efficiency could be achieved by the heater to heat up the room. The same or similar affects described above could also be taken place in this new heater configuration. 

What is claimed:
 1. An apparatus comprising: a heat exchanger with coils filled with heat media; a humidifier for increasing humidity of air; wherein the humid air increases energy efficiency of the heat exchanger.
 2. The apparatus as in claim 1, wherein the humidifier is one of ultrasonic humidifier, evaporative humidifier, impeller humidifier, an air damper, dripper with clothes, and a mist gun.
 3. The apparatus as in claim 1, further comprises a humidity sensor or hygrometer.
 4. The apparatus as in claim 3, wherein the humidity sensor or hygrometer is placed inside or outside of a conditioner unit to measure and/or monitor humidity.
 5. The apparatus as in claim 4, wherein there can be multiple locations where multiple humidity sensors are placed.
 6. The apparatus as in claim 1, further comprises multiple humidifiers placed in multiple locations inside or outside a conditioner unit, and/or combination of thereof.
 7. The apparatus as in claim 1, further comprises a controller to control the operations of the humidifiers.
 8. The apparatus as in claim 3, wherein the humidity sensor is connected either by wire or wirelessly to the controller.
 9. The apparatus as in claim 6, wherein the controller uses measured humidity and other parameters when it sets to control the operations of the humidifiers
 10. The apparatus as in claim 7, wherein the controller can perform artificial intelligent for self-setting to optimize operations or to designed level operations.
 11. The apparatus as in claim 1, is a part of home automation system or a part of industry/commercial automation system.
 12. The apparatus as in claim 1, further comprises a dripping pan for holding water from hot humid air condensation.
 13. The apparatus as in claim 13, further comprises a water filter
 14. The apparatus as claim in 1, is configured as a heater
 15. A method comprising: increasing the air humidity by a humidifier; flowing humid air into a heat exchanger of an air conditioning unit with coils filled with heat media, when humid air flows through the heat exchanger and contacts the coils condensation and heat exchanging occur, and the humid air increases energy efficiency of the heat exchanger.
 16. The method as in claim 15, wherein the humidifier is one of ultrasonic humidifier, evaporative humidifier, impeller humidifier, an air damper, dripper with clothes, and a mist gun.
 17. The method as in claim 15, further comprising placing a humidity sensor or hygrometer inside or outside of the air conditioning unit to measure and/or monitor the air humidity.
 18. The method as in claim 17, there can be multiple locations where multiple humidity sensors are placed.
 19. The method as in claim 15, further comprising placing multiple humidifiers in multiple locations inside or outside the air conditioning unit, and/or combination of thereof.
 20. The method as in claim 15, further comprises controlling the the operations of the humidifiers with a controller
 21. The method as in claim 15, wherein connecting the controller with the humidity sensors either by wire or wirelessly to receive measurements and other data from the sensors, and/or to control the sensors. 